Friday, August 14, 2009

A Two-For-One

This blog post provides two good lessons from one simple example - a learning bargain. And it's multi-lingual, too.

Yesterday I was doing a bit of preparation for my upcoming canoe trip to the distant Canadian north, viz., looking up French words for some of the activities our group will be doing. This is a good way to improve one's vocabulary. One of the group has guaranteed that he will catch plenty of fish for food for a few meals. Another fellow seems skilled at fishing, too, as he speaks of various lures, etc., that should work. So I looked up the word for "fishing" in French. Lo and behold, I found that it's quite similar to the word for "sin". And for "peach", too. Here they are:

So what does this mean ? Do the concepts of sin and fishing have some connection in French culture ?

Hmmm ... speculating lazily, one could wonder if the Christian religion that dominated French culture and society for centuries might have produced some connection, via the notion of Christ "fishing" for souls, or from St. Peter being a fisherman, or the ancient sign for Christians being a fish. That's what a slothful pundit or blogger would bloviate. Not your writer.

I decided to check the facts - French is a romance language and many words derive from Latin. As I am re-learning Latin, I looked up the Latin words for "sin" and "fish". And lo and behold, here is what I found.

Latin for "to sin" is "peccare", thus "I sin" is "pecco". this is pronounced "pekko".Latin for "a fish" is "piscis", pronounced "piskis" with the 'i' as in "pin" and the 's' as in "sin".

The similarities in the classical Latin of 2000 years ago can be no accident.

Over the centuries, classical Latin became the vulgar Latin of the common man, then became 'fratin' in Gaul, then Old French and now modern French. The spelling and pronunciation changed. Voilá - the two words independently converged. Modern French uses the acute accent é and the circumflex ê to distinguish the now minor spelling difference and modest pronunciation difference.

What are the two lessons ?

1. Independent, unconnected events, characteristics and traits CAN and DO evolve into near identities. Even two nearly identical things or events do not necessarily have a causal connection.

2. Check your facts, or risk a blunder.

Actions

I am still doing nothing. Je ne fais encore rien.

Word of the Day

"Perchance" - adverb [$10]Perchance means 1. by chance; 2. possibly, maybe.Sentence: Similarity may be due to a connection, or perchance be a mere accident.

Among the options, the fund is considering moving to offshore energy exchanges or further into unpoliced over-the-counter swaps markets to avoid Commodity Futures Trading Commission rules that would limit the size of its natural-gas positions

good job Bman.........this stupid soviet style CFTC was on commodity etf's will only succeed in 1 thing.........they will just go overseas

at a time when are losing millions of jobs.......just drive more business overseas

you shut the F up.............hope middletennesseestate woops the tiger ass........in fact........i hope death valley catches fire during the home opener..............and the stadium burns down........and the tiger fans start crying and screaming like the pussy fags they are

Hong Kong's economy grew more strongly than expected in the second quarter compared with the previous three months, ending four quarters of contraction and prompting the government to raise its full-year forecast amid strength in the Chinese economy and an improved export market.

"I'm going to be taking some vacation time starting today and then next week. I'll be posting on a limited basis, but I'm going to try to shut the computers down, ignore the market a bit and clear my mind."...thx jim...just sit in cash, your time will come, sure to make his big move soon as he clears his head.

Bman.....you say you never invested with a beefer ............but were solicited

but......were you ever recruited by a beefer??.............surely a man of your qualifications and pedigree would be a great hire..........i find it very hard to believe you never interviewed with a beefer....or at least had a informal lunch with a beefer ceo trying to lure you

About Me

I have a pioneer mentality. My wife & I live in the woods - neighbors aren't visible except slightly in winter. Our "bunker" - hehe, really a fine home & barn - has plenty of security. We have four dogs: Krypto (age 9, Kelpie), Ava (age 13, Rat Terrier), Sky (Kelpie, age 5) and Lucky Star (age 1, kelpie). I don't take crap from anyone anymore, having enough resources & gear stocked up to survive in any circumstance.
I have three degrees from Harvard including a Ph. D. in a physical science, and an MS in Management from MIT. I worked as an investment banker for about 25 years, mainly in secured finance, at three major Wall Street firms and for the last 17 years with my partners at our own firm. I'm semi-retired now, managing some private corporations and business interests and doing my own trading & investing. This is not to boast, but to give you an idea I know a little about some subjects from experience.
The photo is my 1943 M16 half-track which I am restoring. These armored vehicles were ubiquitous in the US Army in World War II and Korea. It's driveable.